


Things That Change

by BombshellKell



Category: Thor (Comics), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 13:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/598320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BombshellKell/pseuds/BombshellKell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sif will see an end to Asgard's foes. Loki has done some unforgivable things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things That Change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [qualapec](https://archiveofourown.org/users/qualapec/gifts).



Her blade was pressed against his throat, hard enough for him to feel its sharpness but not quite hard enough to draw blood just yet. He could see her try to stay level-headed, see her try to mask her fondness with anger, but the tears shining in her eyes betrayed her, no matter how fierce she was. 

"You know what I must do, Loki," she said, keeping her voice from shaking. He let his eyes travel up the blade to her hand, up her hand to her arms, remembering how they felt when they wanted to hold him rather than kill her. "You know I cannot let you live after this. No matter what Thor thinks, I know you well. I know that failure does not sway you, I know you will kill again, as long as it gets you what you want. And I know you will not care who it is that falls around you." 

Loki put on a smile, his eyes finding hers, and for a moment he thought that she would pull away from him, let the sword fall and her faux hatred fall with it, but she hardly even blinked. "Sif…" he began slowly. 

"Don't say my name like that," she snapped. "Don't ever say my name again. Hearing it from your lying mouth makes me sick." 

"We both know that isn't true." Loki put the palm of his hand against the flat of her sword, lowering it from his neck until it was lined up with his heart. If she still thought he had one, that is. "And we both know everything you've just told me isn't true, either. Everything about your feelings, everything about mine." 

"Stop pretending!" she cried, pressing the blade's tip harder against his chest. "Stop pretending you know how it is I feel, what I think. You don't know everything; you don't know half of what you think you know." 

"But I know you, Sif." He kept his eyes on her, refusing to look away. "I know what you remember. I know what you force yourself to forget. I know you think of the first time you kissed me, the first time I touched you. The first time we went out riding together, how we stopped and tied the horses to the tree so that we could lay in the grass and talk about how we wished things were different. I always wished for your arrangement to be Thor's wife to be terminated, and you always wished that you loved Thor as much as you loved me. 

"I love Thor more than I ever loved you." 

"Another statement that you know isn't true." 

"I told you to stop deciding which of what I say is true and what isn't," she said, pressing her sword in so firmly that she drew blood. Loki felt it soak threw his shirt, but it wasn't deep enough to do him any real harm just yet. "I hate you. I hate what you've done to me, I hate that everything you've said to me in our entire lives has been nothing but disgusting lies." 

"I love you, Sif," he said simply. 

"No, you don't," she yelled, letting the sword clatter to the floor. "You don't. You don't. If you did, you wouldn't have done any of those things. You would have been satisfied here, with me, and Thor, and everyone else. You would have thought of me before you let go." 

He watched her, stunned for a moment, but didn't have the opportunity to say anything else before she snatched the sword back up off the floor and turned toward the door to his cell. 

"I don't ever want to see you again," she said, holding the sword again to his throat. "I will see an end to all of those who are a threat to Asgard. I swore it long ago, and I still swear it." She pressed harder, drawing blood, and as he looked up at her, the realization hit him that she was truly going to do it. 

\- - - 

"There were many, many times after that that I found myself wishing you'd done it," Loki said softly, standing by the window, the cool breeze from outside sending his hair brushing across his forehead. Sif frowned, walking up behind him and putting her hand on his arm.

"You don't mean that…" 

"I do. I felt like less than I ever have in my life." He turned toward her. "When you're as high up as I thought I was… you fall far. So far that you feel as if you've died, and will never stand again. But somehow, I managed to." 

She smiled slightly, liking to think that she helped at least a little in all of that. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. "It was only a chapter in our story, love. A chapter that has passed."

"And yet, one thing is still on my mind regarding it," he admitted, turning to face her. "You told me that day that you would see an end to all of Asgard's foes. Why, then, did you spare me?" 

She gave him an odd sort of look, a look that he couldn't quite read. That was a funny thing about Sif. He could figure out everyone else in Asgard, know what to say to get them to do precisely what he wanted, know what to lie about and when to lie about it. But never with Sif. 

"Why?" he urged, leaning his head in until their foreheads touched. She shook her head, her smile widening as if she thought him terribly silly. 

"I am no fool, Loki," she said, bringing her eyes up to meet his, even at this closeness. "I knew that you would no longer be a foe to Asgard. I knew from the moment you looked at me in that way… that you'd chosen the path that I would illuminate for you. That you truly loved me enough to better yourself." 

He understood now why she was smiling; he was, too. "I've never loved anything, in any realm, the way I love you," he told her, his voice barely above a whisper. She gave him a kiss, drawing away barely enough for their lips to stop touching. 

"I know."


End file.
